Given its influence, it’s never a pretty sight when California goes astray on energy policy. The energy crisis of 2000-01 still looms large. Its rolling blackouts and skyrocketing costs impaired America’s then nascent customer choice movement.
But fast forward nearly two decades and customer choice is reborn -- although not in the way the … [Read more...]

The city council of Carson, California has opted to take a closer look at a community microgrid proposed by Charge Bliss, although the city manager recommended that the project be nixed.
With a September deadline looming for a potential $10 million state grant, the council scheduled a workshop on the microgrid for Tuesday, August 14. The … [Read more...]

Energy insiders see the emergence of new microgrid opportunities in Massachusetts from clean energy legislation passed last week and now awaiting the signature of Gov. Charlie Baker.
An Act to Advance Clean Energy (H.4857) won unanimous Senate support and near-unanimous House support, with only one nay vote.
The legislation opens up … [Read more...]

Quickly growing community choice aggregations (CCA) are expected to play a significant role in drawing 85 percent of customers away from California's investor-owned utilities by 2025, according to a new report.
The community aggregation report was one of three on grid disruption released by Next 10, an organization with a goal of improving … [Read more...]

Community microgrids increasingly appear to be more cost-effective than extending the central grid in the developing world, according to new findings by Bloomberg NEF.
With an improved price position, microgrids will serve 34 million of the 238 million households that will be electrified between now and 2030. Another 72 million will install … [Read more...]

Craig Lewis, founder and executive director, the Clean Coalition, is taking on the formidable task of galvanizing policy support in California for wholesale distributed generation, or WDG.
This means nothing short of changing the way transmission costs are considered. In addition, the Clean Coalition is advocating for the use of feed-in … [Read more...]

Configuring Puerto Rico's electric system into 10 mini-grids could bring the island much-needed resiliency at a competitive price, according to a white paper issued by Siemens this week.
“Resilient by Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid” describes a plan that segments the island’s grid while boosting … [Read more...]

A tribal community in Cape Cod, Massachusetts is pursuing energy sovereignty with a solar microgrid, eco-village and Tribal Utility Authority, and to date has received two federal grants to support this effort.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Community Development Corp (MWCDC) hopes to establish energy self-sufficiency that supports its sustainability … [Read more...]

More and more airports are interested in developing microgrids following last December's power outage at the Atlanta airport. But often transportation officials aren't sure how to get started.
The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) aims to help them by developing a “microgrid implementation toolkit," according to Adam Klauber, RMI's director, … [Read more...]

Puerto Rico continues to make good on its promise to rebuild with microgrids, issuing five solicitations this week for industrial microgrids that can operate independently from the grid indefinitely.
The solicitations are the island's latest move to segment its grid after a near total collapse from the September 2017 Hurricane Maria. The … [Read more...]

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This report details how the integrated power system could look after the full implementation of the proposed plan, when outdated equipment not compliant with the federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standards has been retired and replaced by renewable generation supported by storage. Download this report to learn more.